


Infinity War

by MaladaptiveNinjaReturns



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Loki (Marvel) Lives, Loki is a good guy, Loki survives, Other, Sass Fest, Sassy, clint still hates his guts, win the avengers over
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2020-09-28 17:28:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20429723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaladaptiveNinjaReturns/pseuds/MaladaptiveNinjaReturns
Summary: What happens when Loki survives Thanos' clutches and makes it his life's mission to defeat the purple scrotum-face at any cost. That cost being his brother and a peace-treaty with the Avengers.





	1. Dusk

Blood shines a hue of black under the shade of fire burning at the occasional distance from the bodies that lay scattered on the floor. The crackle of fire seems to echo through the destruction in the ship all around. A low painful groan comes out of someone covered in blood lying by the steps before something sharp crunches through the back of their skull, silencing them for good.

“Hear me and rejoice.”  
A voice flat and emotionless calls out to all lifeless bodies but for a few.  
“You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great. You may think this is suffering.”  
Graceful steps are taken over the carcasses as if they are worthless hurdles, walking without much thought.  
“No,” the voice continues, not stopping for anything or anyone, “It is salvation.”  
“Universal scales tip towards balance because of your sacrifice,” it declares as its boots clack over the bloodied metal underneath. “Smile. For even in death you have become children of Thanos.

The alien features that run flat in the front with hollow eyes on either side of the noseless protrusion of bones and muscles sing the words like a sacred chant. The wrinkles going down the high cheekbones do not do much to dilute the ominous construct of that face frozen in muddied blue that dresses like a nobleman and talks like a monk with an agenda. And an agenda he has.

He lets his words hang in the air smelling of fuel and plasmic blasts working their way through the vessel while his eyes come to rest on one of his captives.  
The green of the God stares back at him with the similar coldness that hides a long hidden memory in the crevices of his being. Even in the stillness with which he stands- his lips cracked, his skin sweating, his eyes bloodshot, his breaths calculated- his mind runs all the scenarios at once, working not only through the danger in the present but also trying to suppress the latent trauma of the past.

And as his eyes turn to watch the slender shape of the silent torturer walk by, his eyes settle on the one responsible for the grand scheme of things.  
The one who stands over the body of his brother as he tries to breathe through the pain of his broken bones.  
“I know what it’s like to lose. To feel so desperately that you’re right…yet to fail, nonetheless.”

The clunk of the Titan’s armour is an unwelcoming pierce inside his head, trying to poke at the pieces his sub-conscience is working on keeping as invisible as possible.  
But he knows. Those memories are like that one scent caught inside your brain, tucked safely somewhere and forgotten for the best. And when that scent is found around you again, everything breaks lose. Every little sensation, every tiny emotion. Every single ache of the limbs. Nothing is left to the imagination for the hidden reality resurfaces again.  
The broken body is picked up from the floor and dragged with words that do not seep inside him as much as swirl in the waters, trying to smell the blood.

“Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same,” the Titan announces to the God that stands captive surrounded by the Children. The Children of Thanos.  
The voice vibrates on all the wrong wavelengths inside him. How else is the echo of one’s torturer supposed to feel under the skin? And as if that is not enough, the Titan makes sure the Trickster sees the glowing hues of violet and purple over lone stone being held inside the gauntlet that he wears in his left limb while with his right he picks up the other sibling, grabbing his skull inside his palm, who just huffs and grunts, his mouth spitting blood while what is left of his one eye tries to stay conscious.

“You talk too much,” the Asgardian king articulates.  
But the Titan barely registers those words as he does not take his eyes off the raven-haired God.

“The Tesseract. Or your brother’s head,” he threatens with a visible sway of the skull inside in his hand before putting enough pressure to let the sound of cracking bones be heard around him, bringing a smile on his Children’s faces.  
“I assume you have a preference,” he asks the green eyes with a tilt of his head and an insincere smile.   
“Oh, I do,” the superficial greens declare without so much as a blink through their dried lips, “kill away.”  
For a minuscule of a second, the Thanos shows the shades of surprise before his gauntlet bent into a fist and the stone is pressed into the cracking skull.  
A blunt scream tears the hot air all around them as the veins closest to the stone burn purple with agony.  
Emotions do not even touch the parched skin of the Jotun. Neither do they touch his breath.  
Not until his eyes betray his mind and turn towards his brother.  
And at the sight of the only surviving family writhing in pain five feet away from him, his mask crumbles. His eyes give away; a glisten of fire reflects at the filled up edge.  
“All right, STOP!” He screams.  
The screams stop. A huff of relief comes out.

“We don’t have the Tesseract,” the broken voice declares, still not shaken by the being who seems to have the most power in the entire ship, “it was destroyed on Asgard.”  
A muted sigh leaves the other sibling.  
_Oh, brother_, he thinks to himself before his stature changes and his shoulders droop a little when his dominant hand goes up into the air that rains of the remnants of anything that has gone up in flames.  
Light as blue as the purest of oceans bursts through the air before taking the form of the Tesseract in those long pale fingers.  
The Titan smiles with satisfaction.  
The bloodied sibling looks at the sight of an unspoken betrayal in front of him.  
“You really are the worst, brother,” he grunts in his breathless state.  
But the ‘brother’ only takes a step forward before looking back at his sibling.  
“I assure you, brother. The sun will shine on us again,” he confirms, making Thanos chuckle.  
“Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian.”

The hand holding the Tesseract jerks back an inch.  
“Well, for one thing, I’m not Asgardian,” he states right into the eyes of the self-proclaimed saviour, “And for another…we have a Hulk.”  
A deadly grunt comes from behind the Titan before he can turn, giving the God a chance to let go of the cursed Tessaract and move his brother out of the way of the green beast raging through the ship- or what is left of it- to fight the Thanos, landing blows upon blows on the purple maniac while one of the Children prepare their weapon to intervene, only to be stopped by the spatial psychotic monk.

And before he can fathom, the Hulk is beaten, broken, thrown around without any mercy, losing consciousness as soon as he makes an impact with the floor.  
What the Hulk couldn’t do with his strength and outburst, the one-eyed sibling tries to do with a scrap of metal; resulting in him landing over the remains of the gateway of the ship, bound by the same torn up scraps that float around his body to strap him in place like the rabid animal he is in the eyes of the monk- who barely moves himself save for his fingers to make the elements bent at his will do the work for him.

And there he is trapped as he watches the familiar eyes of pure gold lying on the floor filled with fear suddenly glow with one last streak of hope as they send their unconscious alley back home.  
Trapped- as he watches the Titan drive a borrowed blade through his comrade, twist it without a second thought to crush the life out of the Keeper of Asgard.  
Trapped- as he watches those hopeful eyes lose their golden shine as the head falls back into eternal slumber, still looking up towards space; broken empty nothingness.  
Trapped- as the only thing that escapes him is the violent scream through his pounding lungs before curses fly out of his mouth.  
Trapped- as the wrinkled psychopath swings his fingers again, bring a few more scraps from the surroundings to mum that mouth as he gestures the God to do so with a shush of his scrawny fingers on his grisly lips.

The same psychopath bends down with words of pure praise for his master as he presents him with the Tesseract, that is broken and crunched in his fingers before being set down into the gauntlet to feel unadulterated power of the space stone flow through him.  
“There are two more stones on Earth,” Thanos points out as he observes his gauntlet, “find them, my Children, and bring them to me on Titan.”  
With a humble bow, the Children promise their success but only to be interrupted.  
“If I might interject,” voices the Trickster as he comes forward, “if you’re going to Earth, you might a guide.” He smiles with a slight tilt of his head. “I do have a bit of experience in that arena.”  
“If you consider failure experience,” Thanos spews back the words at him.  
“I consider experience… experience,” stresses the Trickster.  
“Almighty Thanos,” he announces with an unwavering tone, “I, Loki, Prince of Asgard-” pausing for a thoughtful moment to share a look with his brother, “-Odinson, the rightful heir of Jotunheim, God of Mischief-” a knife taking shape in his hands, hidden quite well from the eyes of his enemy, making his brother pause at the sight unfolding in front of him- “do hereby pledge to you…my undying fidelity.”  
With a bow and a reckoned breath, he pulls out his weapon to go straight for Thanos’ head.  
A centimetre of space- that is how much the distance is between the dagger and Thanos when the latter freezes the space and hence the attack while his Children are still trying to fathom what just took place in front of their eyes.  
There is a glint in the eyes of the Titan; almost a hue of fascination in the smile that creeps over his face to watch Loki’s dire attempt at his life.  
“Undying?” He stretches the shivers, watching the raven-haired God tremble where he stands frigid.  
“You should choose your words more carefully,” he dictates before grabbing Loki’s hand and throwing away his weapon.  
“Any last words, Trickster?”  
The green eyes lose their resolve with every passing second.  
“You will never be a God,” they speak, nonetheless.

Even with the blood of a frost giant running through him, Loki feels the stare of piercing ice through the Titan’s gaze, standing still even when the towering maniac moves towards his brother, the reality of what is about to happen to him catching on to him a little late.  
“No,” comes out a whisper from Loki’s lungs, “NO!”

Before he can run towards his brother, a blow is landed on his head to get him on his knees. His head gushing out blood is forced up by his hair to make him watch as the Thanos uses the soul stone to rip every cell apart from Thor bit by bit, his muffled cried still making Loki writhe with pain as he bursts his own lungs to make it stop.  
But he never gets the chance.

The metal is taken away by sway of a hand, making Thor’s lifeless body drop with a resonating thump.  
The Children gather around Thanos as he lights up the place to let it burn into oblivion while they disappear into their Titan’s handmade void.  
Loki falls down twice as he tries to make his way to his brother’s side, calling out his name for a sign.  
Any sign.

“Thor! No,” he cries out with the last breath in his shriveled lungs while everything in his vicinity bursts up into purple flames; the flames evidently not as hot as the tears that break through him at sight of his brother’s spiritless body as he embraces it with his all, letting out a muted shriek as the last surface of gravity underneath them explodes.


	2. Space

The Benatar warps through space, jumping through galaxies to the tunes of Rubberband Man. The planets, stars, asteroids, everything around it is a beautiful blur as the Guardians hum, dance in their seats, argue about the true intentions behind answering a distress call, Mantis curling up her lips because Peter tells everyone to put on their mean faces, everyone else quarrelling with their teenage Groot.

The atmosphere changes as soon as the spaceship comes to a standstill to the sight of corpses and wreckage floating in the blood-smeared vacuum in front of them. The nearest star burns red in the back, somewhat an ominous yet perfect visage for the recent arrivals. The silence both inside and around the Benatar is mind-numbing despite Rocket mentioning they might not get paid for rescue after all. The words leave him to bring a lone body to crash on the spaceship front with a loud thump.

“Wipers!” Rocket yells, disgusted at the sight of the greasy black hairs covering a grimy, wounded face, “Wipers! Get it _off_!”

Green eyes suddenly open up in shock, sending every Guardian on a screaming spree till Gamora has to resist thwacking everyone in the ship and help her get the seemingly alive being inside for the needed medical attention.

The body covered in aftermath of plasmic explosions, blood, space dust, healing burns and wounds is dropped on the table within the spaceship.

Mantis, curious as ever, usually maintaining her distance, bends down to scrutinise the hair strands over the face of their rescuee, moving them away from the face to reveal a face bluer than any blue, markings running down their cheekbones, around their head, quite probably over their entire body as Rocket tries to poke away the collar to take a look at how far they go.

“Wasn’t it Quill coloured a few minutes ago?” The racoon wonders out loud, already suspicious, “I don’t like this.”

“Dang!” Quill quietly exclaims, watching the sharp features under all the scars, pretty sure he seemed quite blue and dead, “Sure this dude’s still alive?”

“Woah, Quill,” Drax interjected matter-of-factly, “you are a dude! Him? He is a space goth God! Look at his hair!”

Quill mouths a what, his nose scrunched in pure shock all the while Drax ignores him, looking down at the ‘space God’. “A beautiful space God. Look,” he points out at the muscles being slowly exposed as Gamora lifts up the fabric to scrutinise the alien skin. “It’s like he was made by a space pirate. He must have powers too. Better than yours, Quill.”

“I think I know who he is.”

Everyone except Mantis and Groot turn their heads towards Gamora who is moving her fingers carefully over the indentations on the untouched blue of the foreign arm.

“Oh! One of your ex-boyfriends?” Peter’s voice drips with sarcasm.

“What?” the amusement and disgust at Peter’s words are visible over her face as her head jerks back, “No!”

“Then stop messaging his arm like one!”

Looking at Peter with her signature murderous eyes, she lets go of the arm, never drawing her eyes away from the Starlord’s face coloured in every shade of jealousy.

All this while, Mantis watches the alien closely, her fingers hovering over his forehead with a fragment of uncertainty before she finally decides to go with her guts and place them right where she feels whatever this one is feeling.

“He feels…” Mantis’ nerves light up as her big black eyes go wider as if looking at the void, “cold. Wow. He really is cold.”

Quill looks around at the faces busy at reading Mantis’ expressions- changing from that of amusement to morbid uncertainty- before discreetly touching the arm closer to him for confirmation.

“He feels…sorrow-” Mantis’ states solemnly before a tiny gasp escapes her lips- “and loss…and hatred. And…and…”

“And what, Mantis?” Gamora’s softness tries to anchor her friend in the present while Groot looks away from his game to throw a sideways glance at the unconscious creature.

Mantis nearly hiccups. Her eyes glisten as they look at an invisible picture of horrid reality unfolding in front of her.

“Pain,” she cries with an edge of extreme agony as the tears well up and find no restrains before falling off, “there is so much pain!”

“What, did he get hit in his balls?” Quill is quick to quip, getting a deserving punch on his arm by Gamora.

“Rejection,” Mantis’ voice quivers, “he feels worthless. And…then there is anger and jealousy.” Her breathing falters and she draws in a breath. “Loneliness.” It’s almost a whisper. “Tears. Darkness.”

Everything is silent. The explosions outside are now a background static as everyone is too engrossed in the shades of emotions Mantis is feeling. Even Groot has lost interest in his game.

“Is there anything beyond the darkness?” Rocket steps close to Mantis with a soft whisper.

“Torture.”

A lone tear falls off her cheek.

“Solitude.”

Her face scrunches further and she has to visibly restrain herself from wincing out loud.

“Okay, that’s enough” Gamora declares, squaring her shoulders, “wake him up.”

Nodding hastily Mantis bends down over the blue God to whisper, “wake up.”

A loud gasp escapes the lungs of the foreigner as his body projects itself off the table and two daggers present themselves in his hand out of thin air before he growls like a wild beast left unchecked.

“Woah! Easy there buddy!”

“Don’t you _dare_ ruin my ship. I told ya we should’ve wipe'erd him off the damn window!”

“Please don’t kill us. I was only reading your _feelings_.”

“We can still wiper him off. I will go grab them from outside.”

“I am Groot?”

“WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP!”

Gamora’s voice breaks through the mayhem for the Guardians to watch the alien turn around with eyes as red as the star that is burning behind them.

Mantis lets out a gasp of genuine admiration. “So pretty!”

Quill, on the other hand, looks horrified. “Jeez. It’s like I’m looking right at the devil.”

The healing chest heaves for precious air, the daggers still weighing heavy in the clawed hands. Lips part in muted gasps at the sight of unknown beings all huddled together at the other end of a ship he knows not the origins of when he watches the green damsel step forward, bringing forth a change in the stature of the alien to stand straight with a slight tilt of his head.

“I did hear you were hanging with vagabonds these days. But I never thought it was one…lousy bunch.”

“Hey!” Quill shouted from the other end.

Gamora paid no attention to her boyfriend, stepping further, closer to the space God, much against Quill’s silent wishes, with a wry smile on her face.

“It’s good to see you too, Loki.”


	3. Green

“I never thought I would see you again. Not alive at least.”

Gamora’s words are a cocktail of tiredness and disgust mixed with just a hint of carefully shadowed delight that only glistens at a specific angle from her eyes. And as much as Quill wants to admit that he does not like this chiseled-jawed God who would probably kill puppies, he remembers not to do so. At least not in front Gamora.

“Oh, but the way we parted, I was definitely counting on seeing you again, my Queen,” Loki smirks slightly before that mild glee vanishes as one of the wounds being healed by Mantis decides to be stubborn.

“This one is deep,” Mantis almost apologises for healing him, her big beady black eyes looking like they would tear up any second, “it will sting a little more than the last ones.”

Loki looks at those sympathetic eyes which, he knows, have seen it all and still said nothing to the ones around them, and he feels a tug of warmth that he has felt from only one woman before.

“I sure cannot feel more pain than I already have today,” he flawlessly composes his low broken voice and blinks away his tears, ssignalingMantis to continue and she places her hands back on the exposed wound on the arm carrying remnants of old cuts all over it and focuses all her thoughts towards that one deep gash, her antenna lightning up with her affirmation.

“Heal,” she softly whispers to the injury and lets her sheer will do the work.

All this while Rocket and Quill are murmuring their thoughts about this stranger they’re clearly not comfortable with, nodding in agreement before finally deciding to step to the front.

“So, mister charming-guy-stuck-in-space,” Rocket breaks the silence, crossing his arms across his chest, “are ya gonna tell us what blaster you blew up in space to land on my windshield or do we have to wait for some empty gas-can to hit our ship?”

Gamora can see the similar disgust she felt inside her mouth when she’d seen Rocket and Quill the very first time. Oh, how much revulsion and resentment she had for these space pirates back then! But in Loki’s eyes, those feelings seem to transform into an understanding of an aged monk who is done with the materials of this world but still has the patience for the people who seem to be attracted to them.

“Thanos has found the Space Stone.”

Even when Quill understands that this isn’t good news, he can feel an eerie heaviness hanging around the air between Gamora and Loki. He doesn’t care about the latter as much as he does about his girlfriend and watching her face changing every shade from the rigid minuscule muscles to the most emotional veins in her body.

“What do you mean he…he found the Space Stone.” The sharp edge in her voice seems to point directly at the exposed veins in Loki’s open wounds but Mantis can feel that he doesn’t seem to mind. _Guess he is used to it more than he lets on._

Loki seems to be distracted by his wound but something in Gamora’s eyes tells Quill she knows exactly what that raven-haired stranger is doing.

“Don’t you dare try that on me, Loki,” she hisses as close to him as she possibly can, “you know better than anyone else how good I am at making people spill their deepest, darkest secrets,” her threat is almost a sweet cyanide in the God’s ears. Oh how much he wishes it was true to the literal word.

“I had the Tesseract.”

The hiss that leaves Gamora’s gritted teeth is too hard to miss. The energy she reflects right now is dark and disturbed. No one dares to even be within three feet of her when she walks about the ship to calm her throbbing head.

Quill wants to say something but he finds himself at a loss for words.

“…anyone want something to eat?” That’s all he can come up with.

“How…could you?” The poison in her voice even seems to hit Mantis’ nerves from where she stands.

“Do you really want to do this again? After all this time!” Loki spews, shutting Gamora down.

Quil quietly walks over to Gamora’s side, settling down beside her on the table, looking at her furrowed brows, keeping his hands over her shoulders, rubbing them gently before he can find a window to come close to her ears.

“So, how well do you know each other?”

He is fortunate enough to catch Mantis’ expressions as she horridly shakes her head and puts her index finger against her lips, clearly feelings Gamora emotions though she is not touching her.

Even Groot looks up from his tablet at Quill to read his blank expressions before the latter - with a lot of evident effort - composes himself.

“Anyways,” Loki softly shrugs off Mantis, thanking her for her care, “I am grateful that you found me on the brink of my death. But this is farewell.”

“Wait,” Rocket breaks out of nowhere, “where are you off to? N-not that I’m worried. Just curious, ya know.”

Loki sighs as he looks down at the alien raccoon.

“My brother would’ve had a gala time making fun of you, rabbit,” he mutters to himself.

“What’s that?” Rocket’s suspicious senses tickle.

“Nothing,” Loki shrugs it off, “just leave me near the Milky way. I’ll find my own way from there.”

“Loki,” everyone can hear the break in Gamora’s voice, “where do you think you’re going? You think you can hide now? Now?! Of all the times? From Thanos?! That Titan now has the ability to wipe out half the universe with the snap of his fingers,” she stresses, snapping her own, “just like that.”

Silence.

“Stay with me!”

It hurts Quill to hear how much she is at the edge of begging this perfect God in front of them. “We will go to Knowhere when he goes for Aether. I know it in my bones. We cannot risk letting him get to it. Come with us, Loki. We can still stop him.”

It hurts Loki’s nerves to see that Gamora he saw all those years ago. The one with that special sparkle in her eyes. He almost feels guilty for being the one to have been the source of that special sparkle in her robotic lifetime. Taking a careful step toward her to cover the distance, Loki takes her face on his palm.

We still had some part of innocence intact in us back then, didn’t we?

“I have to go, Gamora,” his voice is the softest anyone other than Gamora has ever heard, watching him in cold, pale silence. “We need more than us.”

Wiping that lone tear off her flawless green skin, he walks away towards the end of the ship to press for the emergency pod.

He turns one last time to look at everyone there. “We need heroes, Gamora. Because just cold vengeance won’t be enough this time…”

“What?”

“We need the Avengers.”


	4. Time

Jay & The Americans sing Come A Little Bit Closer in the lone pod traveling inevitably towards Earth as the scanners show another intruder ship in the atmosphere.

“Oh Hel,” Loki whispers to himself, giving the machine coordinates for the last place he heard Heimdall whisper to send the Hulk. The warning lights go all out as the destination is entered but Loki doesn’t have much time to think about it. The foreign spaceship has anchored itself on the planet, already going in with the intent of ‘be ruled or be killed’. He creates a trajectory for the landing in order to avoid any prying aliens and still be able to hit the ground without dying.

At least that’s what he intends to do until his eyes catch the whirlwind and he has to maneuver around the nearest building, avoid the lampposts, hit one, let his makeshift ship do multiple three-sixties till it lands in the same building he was last in when he had visited earth with Thor.

“Ugh,” he groans in pain, using the impact of the ship to try and hide the pain from the memory of watching his brother die, “I knew I could not trust anything owned by Quill!”

“What is he the lord of? Garbage technology?” Loki grumbles to himself for having to put too much effort into getting out of the totaled pod and finding himself facing a soft-looking man who is staring at him with a tilted head and a confused expression on his face.

“You’re…Loki?” The chubby man states rather than ask the God.

“Wow,” Loki tries to catch his breath, giving the man a smirk, “my reputation precedes me. And you are…?”

“Wong.” The man shifts his hands to project golden sparkles covering his fists, making Loki give him a two-second judgmental stare before a sigh leaves his rapidly healing body.

“I’d nearly forgotten about that,” he whispers to himself. “I come in peace, sorcerer,” he announces, raising his hands, “as you can see, the earth is in trouble and your heroes-”

A wail comes and goes from above the crashed building they stand it, sounding almost-childlike.

“Is that…a kid?”

Wong too reruns the wail he just heard, never letting his guard down. “No…I hope not.” But he is clearly worried about who that must have been.

“Do you know what’s going on outside, Wong?” Loki asks the sorcerer.

“Something to do with you, I’m assuming,” Wong almost sings back, his voice heavy and his stance never faltering. “Banner told us about Thanos. And you’re supposed to be dead along with your brother.

Loki blinks. His throat feels heavy. But all he does is swallow it- like he always has. Just another gash in the lifetime of hurt. Only this one hurts like a pounding ache in the head.

"Thor’s dead,” his voice does not rise above a whisper, controlling the only way he knows how to react to the chest ache he gets now and then- rage. “And if you do not listen to me, mortal, you might as well be digging the entire universe’s grave.”

.

“Kid! Where’d you come from?”

Stark looks at Peter in his usual ‘streetwear’ blocking the alien from hitting him while asking Tony what was going on.

“A field trip to MoMA!” the boy nearly shrieks at the end as he is thrown away by the Black Dwarf.

From the corner of the street, Loki sees the chaos unfurling itself everywhere. From Ebony Maw- the most ruthless and disorientedly cunning of the Black Order- gaining in on Strange to the Black Dwarf using his strength in the most potent way on Stark and…

“That is a kid,” Loki hears himself say in sheer disbelief. “When did Stark have a son?”

The building he is standing beside glows in a small circle before giving way to a huffing Wong walking straight through the portal with a mixture of fear and anger.

“You better have a plan,” he is almost disgusted at himself to be asking Loki for help, “because these guys are beating the shit out of Strange and Stark. And on good days I like seeing Strange being beaten at something!”

Loki looks at Wong’s pleading eyes not even trying to mask the helplessness the man is feeling at this moment. He likes this one. Mostly because they _care_ so much for the same guy.

“Well, you’re in luck then,” Loki declares, taking off his cloak.

“I have a plan.”

.

Ebony Maw. The master of torture, the creature who excels in every type of experimental pain he has ever come up with, fueled up by the cries of millions he has 'sacrificed’ in the name of the greater good. He finally tastes the juices flowing inside him when he wraps the wizard inside the vines to take him up inside the ship and begin the most 'pure ritual in the world to cleanse this creature’. Everything in the name of balance. At last. The glory will be his master’s. And the satisfaction of having ended those who oppose the master, his.

The ship is already getting away from the atmosphere and down below he can see the faint trail of fire coming towards the ship before going off.

He scoffs internally. _Humans. Pretending they can own the universe._

An explosion echoes through the ship, taking away all the attention from his meandering thoughts to whatever little ruckus these sorry creatures have thought of now. A look at his screen and he finds balls of fire being thrown at the ship through the portals Stephen and his comrade had been using- or trying to use on him.

He wants to retaliate, show them their worth, but that would require him to take bits and pieces of his own battleship to be turned in the sharpest daggers before cutting through the portals and gutting whosoever lies behind them.

“Unworthy scum,” is all he has to say before he warps away with the treasure he was here for.

.

Bruce is already closing his eyes when he hears Tony barge through the front door, stomping in with blood boiling through his veins.

“BANNER!” he shouts, coming to a halt near his face before hissing, “you better have a really good reason for telling me that the stone is safe just when I was nearly able to reach Voldemort’s ship because I saw that grey bitch take the doctor with him.”

“The stone _is _safe.”

He turns around at Peter’s voice.

“Kid,” he nearly seems to have a stroke as he sees Peter standing in the sanctum in front of him, “I thought you were following the wi-”

“The wizard, yes,” comes Peter’s voice, again but from Tony’s right this time.

Now Tony definitely seems to be having a stroke.

“What the hell is going on here?” Tony is frozen at his point, “Did you have a twin all this time, Parker?”

“Wha-no Mr. Stark,” the one his right speaks, while the left one just smirks at him, arching his good brow and standing with his arms behind his back like…like…

“Who the hell are you?”

He is wishing it not be true.

“You know who I am, Stark,” the Peter on his left stresses. In a British accent. “I missed you too.”

“Show me your face, you son of a bitch,” Tony hasn’t blinked for a long time now and the real Peter can already feel his mentor’s displeasure reach its peak.

“He helped me get Mr. Wizard to safety Mr. Stark,” Peter nearly squeaks, fearing what Tony might do to the other guy. Just then he is awed by the golden and green light glittering away his image into someone taller- much taller- than him.

But Tony doesn’t flinch.

“Now,” Loki declares, the scars from the deep wounds still reflecting the blood over his face, giving his best smile to Tony, “let’s have that drink, shall we?”


	5. Reindeer Games

“Twenty minutes.”

Peter’s eyes look up to see his mentor grinding his teeth with his arms crossed across his chest in defiance to everything that is going, which, obviously, includes this very tall very handsome God- who had tried to take over New York a few years ago- who now stands in the Sanctum with a goblet in his hand, sipping slowly while observing all the things around him. He is all up to stand by Tony’s side but for this very vague time stamp the supposedly evil guy with really good hair just gave out of the blue.

“Okay,” Peter finally breaks apart, “I am all for Team Stark, Mr. Stark but you really gotta talk to Mr. God sir over here. He saved Mr. Wizard’s life after all?”

Tony’s gaze falls on Peter, sending his spidey senses tingling in the worst possible manner.  _ Oh, this is bad _ , is all Peter can think right now,  _ really bad _ . “Kid, why the heck are you even here?”

“Why _wouldn’t_ I be here?” He nearly squeaks in persuasion. “One minute my spidey senses were tingling and the next thing I know I’m-”

“Your what?” For once Loki and Tony have the same reaction in the room, focused purely on Peter.

“Oh, _now_ you two vibe!” Peter huffs at them, forcing them to steal a look at each other before coming back to the kid.

“Did you already have a spawn the last time I was in New York, Stark?” Loki asks with genuine curiosity.

“Did I what now?” Tony has to shake his head to register Loki’s words inside his brain.

“A spawn,” Loki continues to elaborate on what he means, “a brood. Progeny? Pup? Cub? A baby!” Pausing at every synonym to wonder if any of it was being understood.

“Y-I get it!” Tony nearly shouts, “And no! He’s not my spawn?” The scrunch on his face at the last word makes both Loki and Peter twist their lips at him. “He’s my mentee. My-”

“I don’t care about the details,” Loki interjects before turning to Peter, “just don’t learn to be the impulsive self-sacrificing mess that is your mentor, okay?”

Tony takes offense with a wounded gasp, but that doesn’t stop the God from talking. “Because of all the intelligent life form on this planet, only this one was able to see the imminent threat. Just a bit too late, might I add. Because even this intelligent dumb twat could not gather the last time we met all the hints I had left for him!”

Tony stepped closer to Loki, Peter took a step back- clearly sensing the steam coming off the former. “Last time we met I was wiping the floor with your ass, you dipshit!” Tony is hissing through his teeth now, his breath fanning Loki’s hair, the intimacy being looked at with a raised brow and a smirk by Loki.

“And yet you couldn’t figure out what my objective was,” Loki interjects quite smoothly in a soft voice, daring to step closer. By now Peter is just furrowing his brows in confusion. “Even when I told you pissing the strongest people on Earth was the plan all along.”

“Couldn’t figure out  _ what  _ plan?!” Tony snapped.

“The plan to unite all you half-witted creatures against the ultimate evil of this universe,” the tempo increases as Loki’d voice echoes through the sanctum. “To fight against the one entity that was controlling me during the battle of New York, Stark! It was Thanos. It has always been Thanos. The only difference now is that he stopped playing from behind the veil and decided to conclude the charades once and for all.”

A hush falls over the building. Even the cloak that had been eavesdropping on the conversation from the corner of the hall stills itself by the wall in a bow. Tony blinks and inhales, slowly taking a step back as he sees the truth just way too convincingly shrouded in a thick blanket of pain. Loki too increases the distance with two steps away, turning away his gaze, for he knows too well he has exposed more of him than was needed.

_ Oh, but what does it matter _ , his inner voice croaks at him,  _ what does it matter. He already took what was left of my grounded sanity. _

“We only have ten minutes now,” Loki gulps, turning away to blink a bit quickly to do away with the excess moisture gathering in his eyes for no reason, “before Ebony Maw enters the earth’s atmosphere. I suggest you take the Time Stone and Strange to a place with no civilians and terrain where we are sure to win.”

“I knew I should’ve dumped that stupid stone down the garbage disposal,” Tony mutters, making Loki scoff lightly. “I am sure that bastard Doctor too stubborn to even consider it.”

“You’re right,” a voice calls out from the corner as a woosh follows and the cloak is now adorning a beaten but not lost Strange, “I am one stubborn bastard. Now, what all do you need to defeat Voldemort?”

Loki stands there, parting his lips to say something before taking a brief pause. “I was talking about defeating Maw. Ebony Maw?”

Strange rolled his eyes, Tony inhaled while Peter raises his finger to grab Loki’s attention. “He is referring to Maw, Mr. Loki, sir. It’s just us humans have a similar evil guy here that goes by the name Voldemort? So...the correlation?”

“Right,” Loki declares, continuously looking at Peter with a sense of impressed curiosity, “we would need a lot of firepower, rough terrain and all our brain-force combined. Maw isn’t just a child of Thanos. He is  _ the  _ child. He  _ is  _ the Black Order. Thanos exists because of him. If we take him down, we are already five steps closer to taking down Thanos.”

“How do you know that?” Strange asks quite sceptically.

“Because Thanos himself calls him the one with a dark tongue that can sway anyone to do his most obscene of biddings,” Loki states, putting down the goblet on the nearest table before letting his hand wander over the swords kept in front of him. “He is the brains behind every step Thanos takes. The ultimate strategist.”

“Lucky for you” he adds, picking one up with a hilt made in the shape of a silver snake, swinging and feeling its weight in his hand as if it was made just for him, “you have the silvertongue by your side.”


	6. Rage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I practically did to the characters what I wanted to do to them after watching the movie. Judge me all you want but this ship has sailed and it took canon and dumped it as chum for sharks

Ebony Maw doesn't believe in violence of the mind. He does not believe one needs to boil one's insides just because some petty creatures with no real destiny in this universe have made a feeble decision of taking what is rightfully his master's.

_ Their death would be a small price to pay for the delay they have caused in me helping the Titan fulfil his destiny. _

The periodic bloop on his ship's radar brings him to a rough terrain that is being tormented by the fresh blanket of snow piling over it. The winds are showing no mercy as they hit the transparent shield of his ship, illuminating the collision spots with a hue of gold and blue.  _ How fascinatingly dull _ , this planet Earth, Maw coos to himself before landing his ship and walking towards the entrance.

Much to his surprise, he does feel a shiver through his adequately armoured body as the raging winds seem to be coming at him with impure intentions. And so, a tsk under his breath is followed by modestly twisting his hand to create an air barrier around him, keeping those vicious microscopic ice shards away.

The crunch of fresh cold powder under his feet is somehow welcoming to the symphony of havoc he plans on bringing to the ones who slipped through his hands. To the ones who do not have pure intentions for the infinity stone in their grasp.

There is a ripple he feels from somewhere behind him, tilting on one limb and taking a gentle swerve as an icicle misses him by centimetres. No time is wasted to pull that very icicle from the air and turn it around to throw it in the direction it originated from. And while that icicle travels back, snow is raised from the ground to be compressed into more. Those stubborn steps do not retreat as icicles find their target, only coming to a halt when those piercing eyes see for themselves Loki's figure lying in the snow, struggling to breathe.

Those piercing elements of snow have found all the vital points over the God's body, not surprising the Child of Thanos.

"You are supposed to be  _ dead _ Asgardian," Ebony declares with a soothing yet eerie tone, his stature never faltering even as he looks down at the body writhing in pain, "you should stick to being dead."

Green eyes drowning in pain look up at him; same eyes he had once drained all hope out of.  _ Such powerful techniques of purification were wasted on such frivolous being that day. _

"But..." Loki struggles with the pain surfacing on his face, "b-but I'm not the one who's-"

It takes just one slight shift of Maw's posture. Just a single tilt towards Loki to hear what the dying alien has to say. And just as he does, a streak of blazing fire takes the master of torture with him, leaving Loki to complete his sentence, "-dead," before disappearing with hues of gold and green.

The snow feels harder on the skin than it looks, almost making Maw grunt. He thinks he misses the punch from the man clad in iron he thought he had left behind, but the hit to his skull sends a blaring pain, unbalancing him for a few seconds.

"Told you earth was  _ closed _ , you dipshit!" Tony's voice resonates through the suit.

Maw feels the rising bitterness grind between his teeth before he slides away from another punch and sends ice shards towards Tony followed by a rumble under his feet.

"What the- is he trying to bring an earthquake?" Tony rises in the air to dodge the attacks coming his way.

The claws which are targeting the ground seem to be the epicentre of the rumble- focused on ripping the rocks lying somewhere under that blanket of pure white- feel themselves being wrapped by a stringed glow that yanks those arms, disrupting whatever power Maw possesses to move the elements around him.

"You really should get a hobby."

Maw knows that voice too well.

_ The magician. _

When the supreme torturer tries to wrap the enchanted magic strings around his arms to pull Strange towards him, the latter moves his hands to convert those strings into handcuffs, freeing himself to create three more elemental circles and call forward blasts of pure energy aiming at his could-be tormentor.

Ebony dives away, calling forward more shards to break him free of those cuffs, taking the first chance his hands get to call up the already cracked rocks to target the sorcerer.

The first one is missed. The second is dodged. The third is barely tackled by his magic. The fourth one gets him. So does every other boulder that comes flying his way.

Strange is surrounded with boulders from every side, all of them aiming to crush him where he stands. While he is trying to protect himself- and the fate of the universe wrapped around his neck- he doesn't notice the slithering pieces around him, too wrapped up in fear as the rocks finally close in on him with a thunderous rumble breaking the air on their collision.

" _ Strange _ !"

No one knows where that cry comes from as clouds of dirt and smoke hide the point of impact; the crime scene.

Ebony Maw does not move a muscle from where he stands, his hands clasped on to each other with a watchful look, satisfied with himself.

"You critters should have given up these futile attempts when you had the chance."

His voice has a chill that echoes through the mountains. Even the wind seems to fall silent.

"You picked the wrong people for that intention, Voldey."

If Maw had brows he would have raised them when he turns around to look at a faint glow- a few feet above the ground- rise further. It's only when the clouds of unrest begin to lower the haze does the shadow of something fluttering around that figure comes to light.

_ How did he- _

Every scenario is running through his mind to figure out how that magician escaped, cracking the glass walls of restraint inside him. The smokiness in the air takes its sweet time to reveal the shadow of the figure, the chest lit up in a warm blue glow while the arms rise from either side to mirror that very glow in Maw's direction.

"Light's out, you son of a bitch," Stark announces, already witnessing heaps of ice shards rising from the ground. The cloak of levitation readies itself to protect Stark while a grunt rises from Maw's throat as he changes the direction of the shards to point at Tony. Pulling himself back to gather as much potential, Ebony Maw is about to push them towards the man when piercing noise followed by something sharp jabs him like a thousand needles in the back.

"Now!" Tony shouts at the top of his lungs.

Within seconds a streak of green comes running on the snow- melting it where it touches the cold, cracking the ice till it reaches Maw to surround him in a circle marked with a Nordic enchantment.

Before those beady eyes can make sense of this intricate entrapment surrounding him, the cluster of boulders meant to kill Strange break with a crackling sound to reveal the Sorcerer Supreme clad in the Iron Man suit, his hands ready with burning rings that are fired at the tormentor, cuffing him while merging with the Nordic circle of magic, trapping his limbs.

It is unreal; the scream that leaves Maw's throat. The menacing cry is not for the pain but the pride that has been marred by humans and the God that is on one knee, keeping his magic strong and his eyes on the one who tried to take his light away not too long ago.

"YOU WILL ALL DIE! YOU WILL DIE THE DEATHS OF ROTTEN SWINE CRAWLING WITH MAGGOTS ALL OVER YOU! YOU WILL ALL WHINE BENEATH MY FEET!"

Stark and Strange walk towards the creature who roars while on his knees, their armours being exchanged without a word, looking at the dull alien yanking at the illuminated golden and green chains holding him down.

"Oh you coward," Maw hisses at Strange before turning to Stark, "using a shrewd God to capture me? Do you not know the likes of him? His silver tongue has a purpose. A purpose to fulfil his means. Once he is done you lot he will throw you to the black holes and move on to someone more powerful. He only fends for himself. I know because I have been inside his brain. His darkness eats him alive and soon it will eat you all!"

A huff of air leaves Tony's lungs when he shares a look with Strange. Their lungs slowly come back to ease. Their shaking hearts have found solid ground. Their doubtful eyes now look in the direction of the figure walking towards them, its hands illuminating green with an increasing density.

"They see through you, Asgardian!"

All the rage collected on Ebony Maw's forehead wants to launch at the God walking in his direction in any way it can find. But that rage seems to come to a standstill when it sees the figure emerge from behind the fog; concentrating on those lines running up and down the blue skin that is too flawless to belong to a mere animal. The rage resting on Maw's forehead starts taking a few steps back when it locks its beady eyes with the red that sears through his very soul.

"You're wrong, Maw-" Loki comes to stand right outside the glowing circle keeping his punisher captive- "they do not see through me."

A flick of Loki's wrist and the chains are pulled into the ground, making a reluctant Maw bow down to get them back up.

"They cannot see anything."

Maw tries to but he cannot break his gaze from those eyes carrying the colour of blood as they're looking down on him with unspeakable emotions; seemingly blank stare ripping his insides with every drop of volcanic heat leaving them.

"You did not leave much for them to see last time, did you?"

The icy chill from Loki's hand as it wraps around his throat to make him stand and face him with the roles reversed sends poisonous shivers through his existence.

"Don't worry-" Loki whispers too close to him; close enough to make sure he can be the first one in this universe to smell Maw's fear but not close enough for Maw to get his teeth in him. His free hand conjures a four edged dagger glistening with the glow from the snow. "-unlike you, I won't make you wish for death."

The strike is smooth. The blade goes inside his abdomen in one go, puncturing his vital organs with that very strike. Maw does not even feel it; something that brings a smile on Loki's face. "I will make you  _ live  _ death."

The blade comes out, bringing with it the spoils. Black insides slowly spill. This is the first time Maw feels something tickle his abdomen. The itch increases into an unbearable agony and he is trying to clutch to the wound to make that burn stop.

And the blood does stop. The wound heals back, leaving a blue bruise-like stain on that grey skin. The heavy breaths of relief slowly turn into wheezing. The eyes filled with three-seconds of reprieve go wide in horror. The murky, black blood-stained hands turn into claws to rip apart the very skin that healed a few moments ago as the throat breaks into an agonising shriek.

The poison on the dagger has done its job well. It coagulates the blood and regenerates the tissue to seemingly heal the wound but burns the coagulated blood and new fabrication of the tissue to the point that the animal would rather tear its skin apart than have that thing inside it for one more second. And when the freshly healed wound is exposed to the nitrogen in the air, it catalysis the poison to spread further into the body, making that animal a writhing howling mess on the ground.

Ebony Maw experiences the same fate. The shrill screams breaking the air come out for a few more seconds before he has gnawed himself inside out. All that is left of this child of Thanos is the goo its desecrated body lies in.

It does not take a genius to figure out how much thought Loki has put into Maw's extermination; something that makes Stark wonder what had Squidward done to Loki to call for such a gory end.

"Great," Strange snaps Tony out of his thoughts, scrunching his nose at the remains of the grey villain, "one down. How many more?"

"We took down the strategist," Loki announces, sending his dagger back to his pocket dimension, "it should be easy to take down the rest of the...children."

"Great," Tony mentions with a slight groan, "Alexander is dead. Loki's actually a-" he gestures at the Frost Giant, looking him up and down- "a teen girl's dream smurf and I just got a call from Banner telling me Cap met another of these deranged kids.” He groans. “Exactly how I was planning the day to go."


	7. Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> canon got kicked in the ass to make way for my fav sexy bois.

“We’ll be landing in ten minutes. You better have something up your sleeve for these people.”

Loki smirks at Rhodey. “Is our beloved Captain going to be there?” The curiosity is laced with pure mischief. So much that even Tony can smell it from the cockpit.

Rhodey crosses his arms across his chest and tilts his head at the God. “What is it with you and Steve? You have a crush on him or something?”

Loki shrugs and leaves the silence to be taken as whatever answer they please. Giving up, Rhodey walks and seats himself down in the cockpit next to Tony, who does not seem as welcoming to the company. “What are you doing here? Go in sit the back with the Grinch.”

“Relax, he’ll be fine,” Rhodey reassures, lying back into the seat.

“I didn’t mean-”

“I know who you mean. The wizard is back there too.”

“That guy is on some meditative high floating about like-”

“Relax!”

Loki looks in the direction before easing himself into his seat. The soft streak of light coming in from ahead falls on his dehydrated and wounded skin. For a simple moment, the warmth on his face feels beautiful. It feels free. This star always had a different effect on him; to the point that Loki closes his eyes for a brief moment and soaks up as much of that warmth as it can. His Jotun form feels a different comfort for those minute specs of time and all the memories of the day he has had, float in the space of his mind. No noise. Just the inaudible pictures running at a slow pace, every grain of colour remembered just as it was. Every fire, every explosion, every tear down the eyes, every tear in the enemy’s skin, every drop of blood lost, every drop of blood avenged. The space shows it all till it brings him back on earth, in this jet, under the sun rays falling on him till he starts to feel a chill on his neck.

Loki opens his eyes and sighs, tired as he is. He knows what is the cause of his discomfort- nothing harmless. It’s just that he is still not used to the little human looking at him with the curiosity of a child with those huge dark eyes and surprisingly not scared of him or judging him unlike his father. Scratch that; from his mentor.

“I know you are curious,” Loki utters, his head still resting on the headrest of the seat, tired of life in general, “just ask what you want.”

Peter’s eyes light up, his body adjusting itself in the seat next to Loki on its own. “Oh, okay,” he begins, making Loki wonder in slight surprise how long has this kid been holding himself back, “why did Thanos use you in Battle of New York? How did he get to you? Like did he leave you a text or something or was a like a proper meeting where he called you in his dungeon? Or did he booby trap you to get there? And once you said no, did he like put some spell on you? And why didn’t you tell your brother about it? Thor would’ve helped you, right? And I heard he’d taken you back to Asgard once the battle ended. So, like, you guys must have talked then. Thor must know about Thanos too. Did you make a plan on how to take him down? Are there more necklaces out there like Doctor Strange has? What do they do? Are they here? On earth? Will Thanos be coming to earth to get them? Do we make up a battle plan to stop him? Will we be able to stop him? If we don’t stop him what’s gonna happen?”

Peter finally breathes, something Loki is surprised to witness. Such concern weighing down those young bright eyes. And to think he once had the same fervour.  _ Once _ . The pocket dimension is accessed to bring out a green packet. Peter eyes it as pale fingers tear it apart from one side to reveal little violet spheres inside, their smell reaching those inquisitive little nostrils.

“Here,” Loki offers them to him.

“Kids don’t take things from strangers here,” Tony announces from the cockpit. Rhodey looks back while Strange opens one eye to observe whatever it is Loki holds.

“It’s chocolate, Stark. Calm down and fly your toy. Take one while you’re at it. It will help get rid of your anxiety for a while,” the God declares.

“It’s fine, Stark,” Strange adds, going back into his meditative pose, “it’s harmless.”

Peter has already popped one in his mouth, the expression on his face reflecting- without any filters- how good it must be. “It’s better than any I’ve ever tasted before!”

Loki smiles at him, feeling one softly crunch under his teeth. With a content sigh, he begins.

“Before the battle of New York, the last time I saw my family was when I tried to take over Asgard. I had a falling out with my...with the Allfather. And Thor. He was to be announced the king by Odin but I felt it was not the right thing to do because he was not ready to take over that role yet. So, I did what I thought the best. I conspired with the Jotuns. They are...were at one time a species bent on dominating the world, monsters in the eyes of all. I did so to delay Thor’s kingship and destroy the Jotuns once and for all. What I did not know at that time was that I...was one of them.”

“The Jotuns?”

“Yes. I was a Jotun who, when an infant, had been taken away by Odin to be raised as his own. I had been abandoned by my father because unlike those frost giants, I was weak and small and hence a disgrace to the king to whom I was born as a son. So, I was left at the alters of forgotten temples where Odin decided my fate after he won the battle against the Jotuns. I was raised just like my brother to look at the frost giants as monsters; the greatest evil of the world. Once I realised what I was, and tried to do right by...Odin, I killed my father, the Jotuns and when that did not suffice...I killed myself.”

Loki can see the emotions brewing in Peter’s eyes. He notices the silence going further than just these puppy eyes, at the foreign ears pretending to be in a world of their own but paying full attention to whatever history is unfurling around them.

“Then?” Peter is almost too afraid to ask.

“Then the universe decided to intervene,” he continues, “I was supposed to die once sucked into a wormhole. But somehow I survived. I figured it was the accelerated healing due to the Jotun blood that flows through me. Or maybe it was a magic that had long protected me from the world. Either way, I found myself on a barren moon, half alive, waiting to die till it felt much arduous than living itself. I gathered whatever strength I had to walk. And walk I did till I found the lowest of life living in the dark corners. I mixed within, to survive before I found resources to move to other planets and lay low. It was an easy task once I regained my strength. I was able to shapeshift into what people wanted to see. The underbelly of certain galaxies found my talents with magic quite useful, which got them objects nowhere within the reach of normal aliens and I got to live on the highest price paid for my efforts. They did not go unnoticed by the assassins who were looking for someone like me to do their bidding. The only downside was they belonged to Thanos and I was going to be paid in kind.”

“In kind?”

“In kind.”

“I don’t ge-oh...Oh...I’m so sorry.”

“Their kindness came with the price of my sanity. Not that I was a completely balanced being before. But Thanos made sure I was moulded into a weapon he could use to wage war on Earth to get him the stone he desired. The space stone. It was-”

“In the tesseract that SHIELD discovered with Captain Rogers,” Peter quips in enthusiastically before he absorbs the hint of amusement lining Loki’s face. “I uh...went through some of their files,” he whispers.

“Illegally?” Loki asks in a whisper himself, bending a little in the little one’s direction.

“...maybe,” Peter shrugs, making Loki chuckle. “Good boy.” The praise takes him by surprise, but it makes his eyes lighter nonetheless.

“Now, Thanos would have invaded earth ages ago if he wanted to. But he did not do it because the last time his henchmen tried to, someone had sent them running back with their tails between their legs. Some say it was a witch that glowed. Others said it was a demon. And the ones with brittle egos announced that the earth had sent a God in the shape of a woman to throw them off their guard. Of course, I thought they were making excuses until I saw it for myself.”

“How?”

“It’s a whole story for another day, child. But to be brief, Barton helped me understand a lot of this planet’s history when he was under the influence of the mind stone. And Nicholas Fury has been one busy man.”

“Son of a bitch,” curses come flying from the front of the jet, “I knew it.”

“So, I was a mere pawn in Thanos’ plan to invade earth. I was controlled and forced to bend to his wishes of procuring the stone in exchange for my life. He was inside my head the entire time I was here on earth. Except for all the moments the sceptre was separated from me. That was the only time I was able to keep a part of my conscience alive and sane enough to think of ways to survive while making sure the stones never got into Thanos’ hands again.”

The blue ocean gives way to African lands beneath them, deserts and grasslands stretching for miles. The sun directly above them makes the inside of the flying machine glow brighter, striking off every reflective surface it can find once it finds its way through the glass. And in that brightness, a thought washes away those long-forgotten anxious bugs sitting in some dark corners of Tony’s mind. The bugs that had sucked on his own rationality ever since the battle of New York. The questions he wanted to ask the God himself but never had the time or resources for it.

“It was you,” Tony declares as his dark honey eyes looked at some void in the distance outside, “you built the failsafe in the portal.”

“Of course, I built the failsafe in the portal. What am I, a monster?” Loki scoffs in Tony’s direction, clearly being bothered by the fact that it only dawned the genius now. “Doctor Selvig helped me with the restricted technology you people had and I made sure there was a way to stop the attack. And a way to stop me. And not to mention I could not have let the earth be destroyed or I would not have heard the end of it from Thor or his girlfriend.”

“Oh tone it down, Maleficent, you killed Phil,” Tony fumes.

“Oh relax, he is alive!” Loki sings back, annoyed.

The jet feels a turbulent jerk before finding its balance but throwing Strange off his. Turning on autopilot, Tony gets up and walks in the back to face Loki. “What did you just say?”

Loki can see all the shades slowly crawling over Tony’s face- anger, denial, resentment, shock, more denial, fury…

“Go ahead,” Loki challenges, “ask Fury.”

“...you killed eighty people.”

“Collateral damage. I’m not a saint either.”

Only the hum of the engine makes up for this deafening silence between these two that makes Rhodey, Peter and Strange uncomfortable. Soon enough, Tony sits down opposite Loki, taking all three of them by surprise.

“Ignoring that statement for now,” Tony narrowed his eyes at Loki, “after Thor took you back-”

“I was imprisoned, Thor’s girlfriend discovered the aether and my mother was killed, the dark elves were destroyed and Thor was given the freedom to go back to the love of his life.”

“That was you too, wasn’t it?” Tony added without a pause. “You sent Thor away. And if I’ve seen the pattern correctly, you sent the aether away and kept the Tesseract on Asgard.”

Loki lets the smirk play on his lips. He is impressed by Stark’s deductions and the same time is internally a little envious of not having met this man during a better time. The things we could have achieved together.

“Yeah,” Tony nods only slightly, giving that two-second smirk that vanishes as quickly as it had appeared, “smart move. Sending your family away. Keeping the stones apart. Thor told me his father made peace treaties when he left. So, adding to the previous list you increased Asgard’s defences in case Thanos ever came looking for you or the stones there.”

“Stop before you start sounding impressed, Stark,” Loki mentions with a gentle smile, “this colour does not suit you.”

“Rest it, daddy issues,” Tony chimes, “I’m only appreciating your strategies. Not really a fan of this persona. Never have been.”

Loki does not miss the tick in Tony’s beard as his fingers move in some calculative thought. “What has been bothering me is you had it all- every piece of information on that bastard and never once did you bother to warn anyone. Not even your brother. Do you have any idea how much lives could have been saved had you kept your fucking ego aside and tried to make amends for all the crap you put people through.”

It isn’t much but the reflection of the warm glow from the sun outside touches Loki’s eyes enough to reflect a veiled pain behind those few fast blinks and the movement of his fingers on his other palm. If hadn’t been for his own experience, Tony would have missed reading Loki’s shallow breaths, the urge to fight off the tears building in those tired edges, the sweat collecting on his neck.

“Tell me honestly, Anthony Stark,” Loki states, catching Tony off guard for a fraction of second, “Why, for the love of all things alive, did you not tell your family about the threat you saw coming earlier? And when you did, what exactly did they do?”

Tony opens his mouth just to shut it back up, a thing out of the usual for the people who know this man all too well. He stands up, turns around, only to turn back at Loki and point his finger at him, to try and speak again. And again, he fails. Hands on his hips, he clinches his jaw. “That doesn’t make us the same.”

“Oh, no, it does not,” Loki agrees, “it only shows our shortcomings. Battles on the field are much easier to run into than the battles in our minds.”

There is much disbelief internally but a part of him cannot help but look at Loki in a new light. And Tony curses this part again and again for no reason but the imminent truth that comes out of that Silvertongue.

“We’re here,” Rhodey announces from the cockpit, trying to get Tony to come back and breathe.

“Don’t listen to any advice he gives you,” Tony warns Peter, making the boy nod in uncertainty and the God chuckle in delight. Tony goes back but not before he has taken those exotic chocolates from Peter’s grasp. “First rule of stranges, kid!”

“Those are chocolates, Mr Stark,” Peter whines as he watches Tony walk to the cockpit and take a seat.

He pops one in his mouth, feeling the silken magic work in his mouth.

“You ready?” Rhodey asks his friend, “you’re going in a completely foreign country with a criminal, a magician and a whole lot of unresolved emotions with Cap.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Tony remarks, popping another one in his mouth.

“Dammit, why are they so good!” He whispers in surprise, making his best friend roll his eyes and pray for whatever was about to come.


End file.
